It's another night of @SureFineWhatevX, the weekly X-Files watch party hosted by @PhoebeFossil and me. Follow #SureFineWhatever for science, snark, and feminism, or mute the tag if you don't like fun.
We open F. Emasculata with a field biologist requesting a medical evac after getting sprayed in the face with creepy pus. This is a reminder that field safety is very important. Being alone in a remote area is inadvisable, and always carry a satellite beacon. #SureFineWhatever
I want to say that all these scenes of scientists poking strange or alien things and getting sprayed with goo are unrealistic, because we'd be a lot more careful, but, uh, sometimes even the best of us get carried away in the Fervor of Scientific Discovery. #SureFineWhatever
In another instance of "wow, this season of the X-Files has been oddly prescient," we see an outbreak in a prison. Incarcerated people have a disproportionately high risk of covid-19 infection right now.
That kid is looks so grossed out by his proximity to that pulsing pustule that I don't think he's even scared about being held hostage at gun point. #SureFineWhatever
According to Wikipedia, this is another episode inspired by real-world science! ""F. Emasculata" was based on the actual practice of pharmaceutical companies sending scientists all over the world looking for plants and animals that could have medicinal use." #SureFineWhatever
We're our next episode. S2 E23 Soft Light. And we have special guest, particle physicist @sheydaipek joining us! #SureFineWhatever
Um...Young Tony Shalhoub is...hot?? I'm feeling really conflicted about the feelings I'm having about Midge Maisel's dad right now, ya'll.
Smoking Tony Shalhoub has resolved my conflicting feelings. Ew. #SureFineWhatever
What's the current status of our knowledge of quarks? Are they still theoretical, or are the proven? #SureFineWhatever
Both F. Emasculata and Soft Light are highlighting the importance of practicing safe science. Never science alone, never poke things without PPE, never leave your friend locked in a room with the science machine. #SureFineWhatever
So many of people who are the heart of an X-File get put in padded cells in mental institutions that don't look like very nice places. There's a thesis in that somewhere, in how we treat noncompliant folks (to reference Bitch Planet). #SureFineWhatever
"Ambition!? She's a woman trying to survive the boy's club, Mulder. I know how she feels."
X steals the scene in every episode he's in. I kind of want a spinoff show that's just him taking various naive people to school. #SureFineWhatever
The fact that the people killed by the dark matter leave a weird melty floor puddle suggests this thing is affected by gravity, right? #SureFineWhatever
Ooooh, this faces in the tube thing is a really nice touch. It adds a layer of anxiety and claustrophobia to the whole thing. #SureFineWhatever
Thanks for another lovely night, everyone! We can add beetles, pustules, and shadows to the list of everyday things the X-Files has ruined. Wear your PPE. See you next night for Our Town (prion diseases!) and the season finale, Anasazi. #SureFineWhatever
Speaking of which, Anasazi is one of several X-Files episodes to feature Native actors and storylines. Does anyone know of any good Native commentary on these? How is the representation? #SureFineWhatever
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A lot of the debates about whether to bring politics into science, teaching, or other spheres of public life would be easily avoided if people remembered that being political is not the same as being partisan.
Politics involves how decisions are made, how power is structured, and how resources are allocated within and among groups.
Partisanship is an allegiance to a specific faction, party, or politician.
The two concepts are related, but they are not the same.
My research has policy implications. My ability to do my job is influenced by state and federal funding for research and education. We teach students to be well-rounded, informed members of society. We exist within systems that affect who gets to do science, or get an education.
Over a month after the vote, the think pieces on the "rejected" Anthropocene are still coming strong, so I wanted to take a moment to (finally!) offer some background and thoughts about the vote, the process, and what it all means.
Geologists define different intervals in Earth's past so we can share a common language. Earth's 4.5 billion year history is divided into a series of eons (longest), eras, periods, epochs, and ages (shortest), based on visible changes in rock layers and fossil ecosystems.
For example, the Cenozoic Era began 66 million years ago with the impact that killed the dinosaurs. Within that, the Paleocene (66 to 56 mya) was the first epoch within the Paleogene Period (66 to 23 mya). Each is defined by rock layers that record extinctions and climate events.
Last December, a @DukeU Magazine article explored the "uncertain future" of the Duke Herbarium.
The scientific community is now learning that Duke has decided that this facility will be closed. This is bad, and here's why.dukemag.duke.edu/stories/nowher…
A herbarium is basically a collection of plant specimens that are preserved for research and teaching. They're a vital resource to help scientists identify species, understand changes in biodiversity patterns, or even changes in flowering time or other climate change impacts.
Herbaria require resources and space, as well as staff, who use the collections for research and outreach, and who assist visiting scientists to conduct research. Many collections are digitized, but the actual specimens have tons of value. Internet photos aren't enough.
If you say humanity is doomed to extinction and that nothing we can do can prevent total climate breakdown and ecosystem collapse, I need you to know's just as unscientific as saying there's no climate crisis.
I don't platform disinformation. I don't care what kind it is.
Sadly, I've learned that just as there's no convincing the dismissives the climate crisis is real, there's no convicing defeatists that this isn't pass-fail, and that our work will always matter. I only have so much time and energy. It needs to go where it can be of the most use.
Most defeatists seem to come from demographics that haven't historically faced the loss of their bodily autonomy, rights, homelands, or cultures. I empathize with those experiencing their first-ever existential threats, but I really wish their first instinct wasn't to give up.
I woke up this morning full of pain at so much violence, to each other and to the planet. I wrote a short message to my lab, and it helped me see a clearer path. I'm sharing it here in case it helps you, too.
Witnessing trauma is its own kind of trauma, especially in a society that wants us to suppress that trauma so we can continue to function as well-oiled cogs. We don't have a lot of good tools for how to bear witness without becoming numb. And we cannot become numb.
I wish I had the answers, but I'm fumbling through this, myself. What I can say is that when things are difficult, anything we can do to show up for each other and our communities makes a difference. The fabric of society is threadbare and torn; we must patch and weave.
Since 2009, the Anthropocene Working Group has been trying to decide whether geologists should revise the geologic timeline to include a new epoch defined by human impacts, and if so, when. 🧵
If you're not familiar with this project or the debates about when the Anthropocene would start, here's a thread I did on exactly that:
Now that you're all caught up on golden spikes, here's an update:
Today, the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) announced their recommendation, which is that we should have a new geologic epoch, and it started in 1950, as recorded in lake sediments from Crawford Lake, Ontario.